


The Swan's Escaped

by ErikaWilliams



Series: Hot Fuzz Quotes Challenge [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Finn-centric, Gen, Hot Fuzz Quotes Challenge, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 23:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6728179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErikaWilliams/pseuds/ErikaWilliams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post TFA, Finn’s been itching for something to do.  Luckily for him, the swan has escaped.  He just doesn’t know what that means.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Swan's Escaped

**Author's Note:**

> This is part 1 of a fiction challenge based off of Hot Fuzz quotes. While I had originally planned on doing Stormpilot, I have since switched it to focus on Finn. Mostly because I had a great idea for number 5 that didn’t involve Poe at all. Also, Finn needs love.

He had been given medical permission to walk around as much as he wanted a few weeks ago. He had sought out General Organa to ask her to be put on some sort of assignment. Anything she could think of for him. He wanted to be useful for the group that had healed him, saved his life. She had smiled, told him they would contact him if something came up, and handed him a comm unit. In the meantime, he was supposed to get comfortable around the base and make some new friends.

No call or request for aid had come yet. The Resistance was still recuperating from their losses on Starkiller base, and only pilots were being set out on reconnaissance while they figured out their next move. In his spare time, he wandered the corridors, the scar on his back itching, and another deeper itch that he couldn’t scratch. He wanted to be doing something, anything, other than studying the ways the Resistance base seemed to be a part of the planet. He didn’t want to bother Poe either, since he was pulling double duty since they had lost so many other pilots.

The comm set in his pocket buzzed into life. “Finn, buddy, are you busy?”

In his haste, he almost dropped the comm set as he pulled it out of his pocket. “Poe!” He shouldn’t sound so excited; he didn’t want Poe to worry about how bored he had been. “No, I’m free,” he tried to say casually. Hopefully Poe wasn’t just calling him to invite him to join him for dinner in the mess hall. Dinner with Poe and some of the pilots was fine, but he really wanted to be doing something meaningful for the Resistance.

“Up for a little mission?”

Yes. Of course. Definitely. Why hadn’t Poe contacted him sooner? He was going to go insane just wandering around the base. “What’s the mission?”

“We have a bit of an above ground situation. The swan’s escaped.”

The… what? There must have been some type of glitch in the comm system. He couldn’t have possible heard Poe correctly. “Could you repeat that, Poe?”

“The swan’s escaped.”

Nope. He heard the exact same thing this time. He still didn’t have any idea what Poe was talking about. “Poe, is that supposed to be code for something?”

“It’s code for the swan’s escaped.”

He had never heard of swan before. The First Order only covered potential threats to them, and apparently swan was not one of them. “Could you describe it to me?”

“Black beak, white feathers. Well, it’s a swan.”

It must have been some type of bird or something from Poe’s description.

“Just meet me outside hangar four in five minutes.”

It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and spending time with Poe rarely led to disappointment. Well, except for that one time, but he was determined not to dwell on that. He hurried to the correct hangar and found Poe standing outside with Jess, Snap and what seemed to be a giant pile of bones.

“What’s going on?” he asked Jess as he came to stand beside her. The pile of bones seemed to be swaying slightly and making a strange rattling noise.

“Mr. Bones wants to come with us to catch the swan,” she explained.

Mr. Bones? He stared directly at the thing standing next to Poe and Snap. A fitting name, he supposed.

“The idea is to catch the swan, not scare it away,” Poe said indicating the pile of bones with his whole hand. “Mr. Bones makes too much noise.”

“Sorry,” Snap addressed the bones. “Commander Dameron doesn’t want your help. You stay here at the base.”

“Roger roger, Master Temmin.” A battle droid. A battle droid that turned and walked sharply back into the base, humming a little tune as it went. If Poe hadn’t already lined up a mission for him, he was going to go after that battle droid. Later. He was definitely going to have to check that out later.

“Finn, good, you’re here,” Poe said, coming over to clap him on the shoulder. “Alright, the swan can’t have been gone long. Finn and I will team up and check the woods.”

“No surprise,” Jess mumbled.

“The two of you will go north and check the lake. We’ll meet back here in about an hour.”

Jess and Snap turned and started towards the lake while he and Poe moved towards the forest. “Wouldn’t it be easier just to scout from the X-Wings?” Not that he wasn’t grateful, but the whole thing was starting to feel very contrived. Swan might be something Poe made up just to give him something to do.

“Where would the fun be in that?”

Finn noted that BB-8 had not been allowed to come along either. Not that the chirping droid would have been much help, and it probably couldn’t get along very well in the woods.

“So, what exactly is a swan, and why do we need to catch it.”

“You don’t know what a swan is?” Poe asked, looking at him sideways.

“The First Order only taught us about creatures they considered a threat.”

“They obviously never encountered a swan before. They get quite feisty when they’re cornered.”

So they were going to try to catch this thing? That sounded an awfully lot like cornering it to him. “So why not just let it go?”

 

“The swan’s an incredibly rare creature. No one is even sure what system they originally come from. The only thing we know for sure is that there is only a handful left in the galaxy. If the First Order has their way, how many other species will share their fate?”

They did catch the swan, eventually, and Finn learned how dangerous such a beautiful creature could be when it felt threatened. They corralled it back into its pen where Snap and Jess congratulated them on their success. Poe tended to the bites himself, regaling him with stories about other times the swan had escaped. Later, he found out one of the pilots may have accidentally forgotten to latch the gate behind her when she had gone in to feed it. Still, there would be other missions later, and today was a good day to remember they were still alive.


End file.
